“I pulled out my tablet thinking we might communicate better in writing,” she said calmly. “The point is that they’re not as awful as they have been painted to be. Let’s not lower ourselves to the level of our enemies.”
I growled, low and deep, to express my displeasure.
Thyra crossed the room and placed a hand on my arm. “Arrazyl. Don’t let your anger blind you. That’s all I ask.” She smiled that angelic smile of hers that reminded me so much of our mother and made it hard to be properly angry at her. “I trust you’ll do the right thing.”
Zyvar stepped into the room and she greeted him before disappearing into the hallway.
He glanced at my drink. “Should I even ask?”
“That alarm we got saying there was something unidentified moving in the eastern part of our territory was accurate, but we couldn’t find a thing. I know the humans are trying a new tactic.” The fact bothered me like fire to my wings. I swirled my liquid and took a sip. “The burning question is whether the three humans we captured have a hand in it.” I hardened my expression. “And don’t think I take it lightly that you let my sister interact with our prisoners.”
“Did you speak to Axar before you left?” he asked, not directly answering me. I would let his dodge go. For now.
“Yes. She didn’t even try to get them to help her escape. She just let them touch her and listened while they talked to her, though there’s no way she could know what they said.”
I leaned against one of the columns arching over my open balcony doors, staring out into the starry darkness. Movement flicked in the darkness now and again, my vorpyrren finishing up their day. “The question is whether their goal is to stay here to cause some kind of trouble or if she really was just kind to two small-winged rapscallions who went where they were forbidden.” I said. Their mom’s wings had fluttered all over theplace when she’d heard what had happened when I’d gone to talk to them.
Kyvar trilled before saying, “the female has plenty of reason to tell us what we want, especially when we brought her brother in. Her face…” my thalrikar hardened his jaw. “Perhaps she’s telling us the truth, that she’s not anything but one of their scholars.”
“Is that why you spent so much time with the young female?” I arched an eyebrow at him. “And allowed my sister near them?”
“No one spoke to the leader, as you instructed. I thought we might be able to get something from one of the others. If they’re spies, they’re very good ones. Or,” he said cautiously, “they’re just scholars. They even seemed disturbed about the deaths of the nolykh.”
I flicked a wing in acknowledgement of his continued defense of them. “It could explain why they left her. She’s of less value to them than their fighters.”
“You’ve been unwilling to cause the female physical pain, so now that we have the other two secured in a more comfortable place, perhaps coaxing them would produce better results. Even if they’re not combatants, they might have information they don’t realize would be useful.”
Or they did realize it and were purposefully keeping it from us. I gave him a sardonic look. “So you spent these last dayscoaxingthe young female?”
His wing twitched and I withheld a smirk. “Tatiana seems innocent.”
“She won’t be for long if you keep spending all your time with her.”
Kyvar’s expression didn’t change, but after growing up with him the flash in his eyes told me there would be retribution. “Why haven’t you put more pressure on their leader, truly? It’s not like you to allow an enemy to get away without being physically punished. Especially when it could lead toinformation you want.” He knew I couldn’t bring myself to hurt the female. It was a weakness I needed to be careful of. When I said nothing, he continued. “Perhaps it’s because she has such a sweet smell? Like a female in her prime for mating.”
A growl rose from my chest unbidden. His knowing eyes flicked away at my glare. It was not his business if she had a sweet fragrance, if she was ready for a male to claim. She was mine. My prisoner, mine to do with what I pleased. And that didn’t include other males talking about her in such a way.
Kyvar couldn’t conceal his smirk. No one else would get away with what he does. But we’d been friends since we first tested out our wings, and he is my thalrikar, my right wing.
I shook off my irrational annoyance at what he said and went back to the topic at hand. “If they’re that useless even to their own people then we have no need for them.”
Silence descended for a long moment. Tension radiated off Zyvar. I echoed it.
“If it’s true, then they’ve been discarded by their own people. Surely execution is not the only thing we can do with them.”
“We’ve killed their kind before.” I reminded him.
“But if we’re right, then they’re non-fighters. Like those we leave behind in the safety of their homes. It isn’t right to slaughter them. We kill our enemies, soldiers in battle, soldiers we’ve captured. Not weak humans who can’t fight.”
Internally, I agreed with him. Everything in me rebelled at the idea of slicing through the female’s neck, seeing the human’s strange red blood spurt from the wound while the light died in her eyes. I ground my back teeth. Usually I didn’t care. I was a warrior, a leader to thousands, I did what needed to be done for myself and my vorpyrren.
“If we don’t kill them, do we leave them on the ledges as prisoners of war? They likely won’t live long if we leave them exposed to the elements, they’re too delicate.” My question wasrhetorical. I already knew what I wanted to do with them. “She did offer something that could be of value. To teach us about their kind.” I had brushed it off before, what did we care about their culture? But the more information we had on our enemy, the better.
“We should test her first, to see if she is indeed what she keeps claiming.”
I glanced at him as a slow smile curved my lips. “Good idea. She will be surrounded by our vorpyrren. We can watch her closely and she won’t get anywhere should she try. I will take her out of the interrogation chamber tomorrow.”
“About that.” Zyvar’s left wing twitched and I knew what was coming.
